‘Family’ Not Divas: How Receivers Will Stay Unselfish

The strength of the Green Bay Packers’ receiver corps last season was its depth and selflessness. Will that continue as each player has shown he can be a game-changing weapon?

Packers receivers Jayden Reed and Christian Watson celebrate a touchdown by Reed vs. the Chargers. / Wm. Glasheen-USA TODAY Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former NFL receiver Keyshawn Johnson wrote a book titled Just Give Me the Damn Ball.

The Green Bay Packers’ receivers could write their own book. Maybe they’d call it We’d Like the Darned Ball But We’d Rather Win the Damn Game.

There are diva receivers – a Google search turns up 2.25 million results with that phrase – and then there are the seemingly divine receivers employed by the Packers. They are an all-for-one and one-for-all bunch filled with equal parts skill and selflessness.

“When we have one guy making plays, it makes us want to make plays,” one of those receivers, Christian Watson, said this week at Packers training camp. “We’re working for each other out there. We’re a team. Within our position group, we’re a family. If one of us eats, we’re all eating.”

It almost seems too good to be true.

The Packers’ roster is loaded with quality receivers. The group is led by Watson and Romeo Doubs, who are the veterans as they enter Year 3 of their careers, and Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, who are coming off strong rookie seasons.

Individually, they all are capable of more than they provided last year. At a position in which the great receivers catch 100 passes and even decent receivers can reach 1,000 yards, Reed led the way with 64 receptions for 793 yards. The team leaders in targets were Reed and Doubs with a combined 190; the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb had 181 by himself.

Now that they’re all proven playmakers, how can the whole remain the focus rather than the individual parts?

“Just being there for each other,” Doubs said. “The answer’s real simple. If anybody’s ego gets in the way, we know better. That’s just not how the game is. You stay poised and keep each other up and play ball how we’re supposed to.”

That is easy to say, especially in the carefree days of a July training camp.

“Very,” Doubs interjected.

But how does that become reality instead of a book of empty words? Will it be more difficult now that last year’s rookies have established themselves? That second contracts aren’t too far in the futures of Watson and Doubs?

Doubs is a perfect example. In 30 career regular-season games, he has zero 100-yard games and only one of 80-plus yards. But in the playoffs, he destroyed the Cowboys and had a strong performance against the 49ers.

No doubt Doubs, who has 101 receptions for 1,099 yards in his career, believes he is capable of delivering better numbers which, in turn, will deliver more dollars. How does he keep the team at the forefront if he has one of those stretches like last year, when he had 52 receiving yards in a span of three games?

“Just doing my part as a player and not thinking about the numbers in the long run,” Doubs said.

Is everyone bought into that perspective?

“I believe that we have that buy-in,” Doubs said. “We have a really, really good receiver room and our goal is to play ball and just be there for each other.”

Nothing is being left to chance, though.

“It’s definitely something that’s preached,” Watson said. “It’s being there for each other. Every single concept is different in terms of I may be running a route that’s not going to ever come to me but it’s going to open up something else. It’s understanding what we’re trying to accomplish, and I think everybody understands that and we’re all thrown into different roles at different times.

“I think the guys that we’ve got understand that and are willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

Watson has a different perspective than others. The son of an NFL player, Watson was a late bloomer in high school and part of a run-first program at North Dakota State. So, it’s not as if he grew up being the star of the team and feeling like he needed to get the damn ball. Instead, Plant High School in Tampa, Fla., was state runner-up as a senior and NDSU won four national titles.

“At the end of the day, if I’ve got a ring on my finger at the end of the season, I’m not going to complain about one single game, one single play that season,” he said. “I can’t speak for anybody else but myself, but 100 percent. If we can reach our goals as a team, I think that individual accolades are second to that.”

However, there are egos at play. And not necessarily in a bad way. Catching one pass for 10 yards isn’t ideal, especially if the team loses by three points and you believe you could have changed the outcome.

“For sure. Everyone’s going to feel that way,” Watson said. “I wouldn’t say I would be ecstatic about that specific thing but, at the end of the day, if I had one catch and we won the football game, I wouldn’t go home moping and crying.

“Obviously, I’m going to be frustrated about that one thing but I’m also going to be really excited about the fact we came out 1-0 that week. Everyone’s going to feel a certain type of way, but you’ve got to look past that eventually.”

Is that mindset shared by everyone?

“Our entire group. Everybody in the group is unselfish,” Reed said.

He continued with a mature perspective that matches how the Packers played football last season. The strength of the passing game isn’t in having one great player as a focal point. Rather, it’s the ability for everyone to contribute and to outgun opposing defenses via unpredictability and an abundance of firepower.

“Obviously, everybody wants to ball out,” Reed said, “But in the game we play, that’s just not possible every week. Different game plan, different looks. The defense has got a scheme, too. They might play a guy a certain way one week and another guy’s open. That’s just a part of the game.”

Reed knows the diva reputation at the position – and that the Packers seemingly are outliers. How do they keep it that way? There’s only one football for Jordan Love to throw. There are lot of mouths to feed, so to speak, between the receivers, tight ends and running backs.

“No doubt,” Reed said. “My opinion is the ball finds good energy. If you support your teammates and your teammates support you, if you’ve got a good group that all care for each other that want each other to do great, everybody’s going to eat. That’s how I look at it.

“The ball is always going to find the good energy. I don’t care if I had zero catches for three weeks straight. If we’re winning, I’m happy. That’s just my mindset.”

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— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 25, 2024

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